Monotony
by SillyLesbianPanda
Summary: Boredom can be a curious thing. Nite Owl x Rorschach
1. Chapter 1

There was the loud clamor of the front door being kicked in. The barely audible sounds of elevator shoes on the wood floor. The soft padding of the shoes moved through the hallway and into the kitchen. Then the bang of his pantry being slammed open. Dan sighed, slowly leaving the warm serenity of his bed.

Rorschach.

It wasn't often the other man let himself be heard so obviously when he entered. Yet, somehow the disruption of his nightly bed reading was welcome. This, this living like any other citizen, it was getting to him. It was driving him insane, the monotony. Even if he wasn't going back to the costumes and the fighting, the long nights, it was still nice to see his ex-partner. It gave him a small taste of the thrill that used to be. But those tastes were coming less and less often as of late.

"You always go for the beans." Dan gave a small smile, watching Rorschach eat. He leaned back against the kitchen wall and folded his arms.

"Hurm."

"Why don't you ever heat them? I could do it for you…" Dan cocked his head to the side.

"Waste of time." Rorschach began eating with a new gusto, as if Dan might try to take the beans away to heat them.

Dan sighed, Rorschach's trench coat was looking baggier than usual. While having no idea what his life was like when he wasn't Rorschach, if he ever wasn't Rorschach, Dan let himself worry. While he no longer felt remotely close to the other man, something he missed greatly, he felt… responsible for Rorschach's decline into, well, more insanity.

Dan watched another spoonful of beans pass into the exposed mouth. Maybe Rorschach was lonely. Like him. It was a crazy idea, but yet…

Dan felt the need for small talk, even if Rorschach was less then likely to appreciate it as well. "How, how are the streets lately? Any better?"

"Worse. So much filth." Dan listened for the emotion in his companion's words, as faint as they may be. Anger, self loathing. Sometimes it was if Rorschach blamed himself for the crime and sin in the city. As if he felt he should be able to stop it. But where there is good there is evil, and the evil can never go away when there's good. Balance and all. But in his black and white world, full of conspiracy and lies, Rorschach was incapable of understanding that. Maybe it was for the best.

"You're doing a great job." Dan tried to smile again. It was true, for one man Rorschach was an excellent crime fighter, even with his violent ways. No one else could compare to him.

Rorschach snorted. "Then why so much filth? Bad job."

"For one person though, you make so much difference…"

Rorschach put down the now empty can with a soft clank. "Does not have to be one person, Daniel."

Dan chewed his lip. He wouldn't say it, but he did miss fighting along side Rorschach. "I know. But I can't go back."

"Hurm."

Rorschach got up to leave. "Don't go. Just because I can't go back as Nite Owl, doesn't mean I can't help you." Rorschach turned back around to face Dan. He pulled his mask down back over his mouth.

"Help?"

"Yeah. This, my home, could be your base of operations. I could help gather information, I'm not bad with computers. I can't go back. But I still want to help you."

A moment of silence filled the room. Rorschach's mask was changing almost violently as he thought the offer over.

"You can stay here, if you want. I'll make sure to have plenty of beans for you." Dan chuckled lightly at his own half-joke.

"Much better place than my home." Rorschach admitted after awhile. "Moving easy. No phone number. No people."

A pang of sympathy grabbed Dan. So he was alone too.

"So?"

"Hurm. Try it out."

Dan smiled. "I'll clear out the spare bedroom for you then? Need any help with moving your things?"

"Nothing I need."

"Oh. Um, alright. There's a bed set already, just some boxes I left it there for storage…"

"Leave. It's fine." And with that Rorschach left the house with an almost inhuman speed.

Now awake Dan found himself a little hungry. As he gathered some leftover takeout for a late night snake he mused over the thought of a roommate. It was very strange, how quickly Rorschach had agreed. He didn't feel like over thinking that now.

He turned on some jazz, sitting back in a kitchen chair so that only the back two legs reached the floor. He smiled at the smell of the leftover takeout, food always tasted better after the spices had a chance to really sink in. He looked to a clock on the wall. 3 o'clock AM. Too early to be up, but if he went to sleep now he'd miss the day. Or perhaps he could simply nap. Compromise. Yes, that might work.

The thought brought him right back to Rorschach.

So black and white. So unforgiving to anything he deemed wrong, or evil. Was it really a good idea to bring that man into his home? Or had the loneliness he'd been feeling lately push him to make a poor decision? But maybe Rorschach needed him.

The man was like a child, in quite a few ways. Stubborn, almost naïve in his gray-less viewpoint of the world. And the way he cared for himself. It was obvious that he didn't eat on a regular basis, or bathe. Possibly something Dan could change about him. Maybe being around a friend would help.

Dan snorted. Rorschach was Rorschach. Nothing would change. And yet, miracles happen all of the time.

-----

Dan woke with a start, having fallen asleep at the kitchen table. Rorschach was home, going through his bathroom cabinet by the sounds of it. Dan rushed to see what the matter could be, Rorschach was most likely hurt. That was confirmed by a few spatters of blood on the wood floor.

Turning the other way Dan ran down the hall, down the stairs to Archie, where there was a far better first aid kit.

Upon returning to the bathroom he heard Rorschach grumbling under his breath. Everything in his medicine cabinet was spilled onto the sink and floor, Rorschach was holding a very bloody towel to his forearm. He nodded at Dan who handed him the kit, knowing how much Rorschach craved independence. He

Dan stood outside the bathroom door, watching his ex-partner silently. The wound was a bleeder, but other than that not bad. While deep and long, it had missed the arm's major arteries. Rorschach had become an expert at cleaning and sewing wounds, Dan didn't worry in the slightest. He moved into the bathroom and began picking up the mess around Rorschach.

"What happened?"

"Looking for information. Dogs. Missed the dogs, forgot the knife. Busted a Meth lab."

"That's good. Big operation?"

"Big enough."

Sunlight cam through the window, it had to be around 7 in the morning. The light streamed in. Dan sighed, the days were getting shorter. He didn't want to deal with snow.

He inhaled deeply, smelling more than he wanted to. Looking to Rorschach he smiled.

"Well, why don't you take a shower and I'll make us some breakfast. Get your blood sugar up."

Rorschach looked into space. "Waffles."

"Waffles it is then. I'll bring you a clean towel and a change of clothes then?"

"Hurm."

-----

Dan sat down at the kitchen table with Rorschach, who was enjoying the waffles and coffee quite a bit.

It was strange, seeing Rorschach in his sweater and jeans. They were very baggy on him, it would have looked almost funny on anyone else. Dan couldn't help but stare at the uncovered lips. He'd never seen them in good lighting. They were thin and chapped. The chin was stubbly and rough, with sun damage and freckles.

"Do you have a job? Should I call in for you? I know you've had much worse injuries, but…"

Rorschach cut him off. "No job."

"Oh kay. Well, I'm going to get myself a shower now, help yourself to anything in the house."

"Hurm. Then business."

"Alright."

Dan leisurely walked toward his room, then the bathroom. He felt Rorschach watching him then entire time. A shiver went down his spine. But Rorschach couldn't have been watching him, he was still sitting in the kitchen.

Dan sighed to himself. It was probably just nerves. He hadn't lived with anyone else since his parents.

He stepped into the shower, the cool water was an unpleasant shock for his skin. He quickly moved to turn up the heat. He stood for a few moments, just letting the water run down his body. The drops were harder and faster than any storm, but he still found his imagination taking him outside.

_It was a warm summer night. The streets were slightly quieter than usual, but Rorschach took it as an ill omen. 'The predator always is quietest before he strikes.' Dan had heard that before, but wasn't quite sure where. _

_A few hookers made passes at them while they walked down the street, Rorschach shrugged them off. The man seemed to barely notice they were there. Dan on the other hand blushed and gave them a polite "no thank you" which earned him a few birdies and a "faggot!". _

_Dan sighed. Sometimes he thought that may be true. But he had no time for that. Too much to do. And too many problems, with that type of thing._

_They made a stop in an alley way. Rorschach mumbled about having a tip off that something was going down here tonight. They waited for about ten minutes or so, before the rain began. It started soft, but rapidly became a downpour. Dan was thankful for his cape being water proof, had the thing become wet he may have had to abandon it. _

_A car pulled up. A mustachioed man was thrown out, two goons followed him. A fat balding man came out last. A grumbled something the first man, making the goons give a vile chuckle. A gun was produced. Rorschach was on the scene in the blur of brown. He quickly broke the first goon's neck and turned around to the other, kicking the gun out of his hand and then punching him in the nose, driving bone into the hapless man's brain. The fat man stood in shock for a moment before turning to run to the car, only to be stopped by Dan. He punched the trembling man, only to knock him out. _

_The man with the mustache started sobbing. _

_Dan looked to him. "It's alright." He said softly._

"_Is not right. He's an accountant for the mafia. Scum." And with that Rorschach kicked him in the head, silencing his sobbing forever. _

_Dan winced, but said nothing about the corpses Rorschach had left. Both men left the seen._

_Soon they were inside Archie, Dan began to brew some coffee in a small pot. "I think a little pick-me-up should be nice right now."_

"_Hurm." Dan smiled and turned to face Rorschach, who was sitting on the floor. Dan inhaled sharply upon noticing how shirtless the other man was. _

"_Why did you take off your shirt?"_

"_Was wet. Don't wanna be sick." _

_Dan nodded to the wall and returned to his coffee pot._

Dan's eyes slowly closed. He could still picture Rorschach's naked torso. The scars, the freckles. The thin, wiry muscles. He should be much bigger, from the exercise he did. Malnutrition could be the only cause. The muscles weren't right at all. Aside from very overweight people, his chest had been the most ugly and twisted one Dan had ever seen. It was scared, and sickly. It must be even worse by now, with much worse eating patterns and age.

But Dan wanted to see it. He wanted to see everything.

Not even bothering to properly wash, he stepped out of the shower and dried off.

Maybe this was what he needed. It made sense, he wasn't attracted to the few women who he tried to sleep with. He couldn't even make himself aroused. But the idea of men was off too. But not of Rorschach.

A wave of desire ran through his body, the kind he hadn't felt since he was first starting puberty. The image of that sickly torso, the thin, chapped lips, the sun damaged, rough chin ran through his mind. A deaf hand ran down his body to his penis, half erect already. He though of nothing remotely sexual as he pleasured himself, not of him doing anything to that body, not that body doing anything to him.

Those images swirled and churned through his mind for what could have been anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour. The pace he stroked himself remained the same, not slow, not quick. His orgasm was nothing special, besides the fact it had been his first in years.

He ignored the guilt that threatened to overcome him. This was not the time for guilt.

He had found something to break the monotony of his life. He had found a desire, as absurd and strange as it was.

And he cried.

----------------------

**Disclaimer: **These characters are not mine, I own nothing related to the Watchmen, or any DC comic. I gain no profit from this story.

**Please take the time to review, I know I don't always review, but I make an effort to at least try to. Even if you have nothing good to say, I'd appreciate hearing the things I should work on. **

Author's Note: Despite my efforts of the last few years to get my hands on the book (I'm no good with budgeting T-T) I've only seen the movie (got someone to sneak me in ) I looked up everything I could from the DC database and the Watchmen Wikia. This is still kinda AU. If anything was noticeably OOC, please tell me.


	2. Chapter 2

Dan waited by his computer monitors, fidgeting with his headset nervously. This was show time, the first night he was to be Rorschach's back-up. This was so strange, being with him on patrol without being with him. There were three monitors, the far right was a map of the city, a little red dot blinking. It was Rorschach. The center one was a list of names, addresses and phone numbers, and on the left he was hacking into the system a sect of the Russian Mafia used for accounting.

The top of the list was an , the man whose computer was currently being hacked. The rest were children that had recently gone missing:

Nadia Titov: age 12, missing 4 weeks

Jurek Andreev: age 8, missing 3 months

Halka Petrov: age 11, missing 7 months

Vladmir Mukher: age 6, missing 2 weeks

Kira Alvang: age 14, missing 5 months

Piotr Rapoport: age 10, missing 3 days

Rasputin Morev: age 7, missing 1 month

The police hadn't been able to find a clue as to a single child's whereabouts. Strangely enough, all children were first, or second generation Americans, all of Russian decent. After the follow up with the families, each had denied ever having a child of that name. Rorschach wasn't even able to get any more information from the parents of the children, most of the mothers though had begun sobbing and screaming in Russian.

Rorschach was headed to a factory building in the Bronx. He had gotten a tip from a Russian restraint owner, that had seen Mr. Vasiliev and a few other men with an unconscious boy who fit the description of Piotr. The factory was owned by Mr. Vasiliev's brother-in-law.

"_Rorschach, any updates_?"

"_Coming up on the factory. Looks empty, doubt it is."_

"_Alright. I have bank records of the missing children's families giving this Mr._ _Vasiliev guy around 5 grand each, the Petrov's and Alvang's both have made two deposits, the first of 5 grand, the second of 10 grand."_

"_Ransom."_

"_Looks like it. I doubt most of these kids are even alive."_

"_Inside the building."_

"_Alright, if anything goes wrong, be sure to contact me."_

"_Okay."_

Dan sat back in his seat, tapping his fingers nervously. It was so hard, not being there, harder than he'd ever though. The time ticked by, a minute, five minutes, fifteen minutes, a half an hour. What was going on? He should have come, he was useless.

"_Dan! Bring Archie, now!" _

"_I'm on it!"_

Rorschach had sounded slightly out of breath, and very urgent. Hastily suiting up, Dan flew the owlship as quickly as he could to the location. The blood pounded in his chest, his fingers grew cold. He had gone soft, and not just physically. Could he still do this? Could he be of any help?

" _Where are you?" _ Dan pulled up along side the factory, an old worn building, four stories tall.

"_East side, fourth floor, two windows from the right."_

Dan pulled up, quickly coming into the building through the open window. An awful smelled came through to the outside. He was completely unprepared for what he saw.

7 bodies lay on the floor. The ones that had been Halka and Kira were beginging to rot. Their stomachs were swollen, the skin hung from their bones. Starvation.

Jurek, Rasuptin and Nadia were also dead. It looked like Rasputin had tried eating his own shoes, and Jurek's arm, but had only managed to take a bit, mostly likely disgusted with himself for thinking of it. The boy who looked to be Vladmir was in Rorschach's arms, barely breathing. Piotr was on the floor, huddled and crying softly.

Dan looked to Rorschach, who nodded, and entered Archie with Vladmir in tow. Dan walked up softly to Piotr.

"Are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere?"

The small boy looked up, brown eyes red and shiny. There was a cut on his lip, and a little blood on his forehead. He shook his head.

"My forehead hurts…" he whimpered.

Dan nodded. "I'll make it stop hurting, if you come with me. Then I'll take you home."

The boy stared up at hi for a few moments, trying to make out if the man before him was lying. Deciding he was safe, Piotr stood up like a newborn deer, shaking. He motioned for Dan to pick him up.

Once inside the ship, Dan set Piotr down, and went to bring him water and some crackers that he kept in the ship. The boy hungrily devoured the food. Dan removed his cape, and wrapped the small boy up in it, before turning to Rorschach.

"How is he?" Dan asked nodding to Vladmir.

"We need to take him to the hospital. Not doing good."

"Yeah. Piotr here seems to be fine, a bit of a headache, but that doesn't seem to be from that scrap on his head. I'm guessing dehydration."

Rorschach 'hurmed' in agreement.

-------

They had taken Vladmir to outside the hospital, leaving him with a young woman who insisted that she'd help him. They would have taken him themselves, had the Keene act not been in affect.

Next the had gone to the store Piotr's parents lived over, only to find the entire family dead. Rorschach growled about wishing he had done worse to the boy's captures, who Dan assumed had already been taken care of.

They came back to Dan's home, Rorschach carrying the small sleeping blond boy to Dan's bed.

He met up with Dan in the kitchen, seeing sugar cubes and cold beans laid out from him. He settled down on a chair and began eating.

Dan ran a hand through his hair, the clock said 4 am.

"I'm going to keep him here." Dan sighed after awhile.

"Hurm."

"I'm not asking you to help with him, but…"

"But?"

"I don't think it's a good idea for you to wear your mask around him. Children run their mouths. If word got around that you are here, the police, your enemies, look, I just want to keep you safe."

Rorschach stopped eating. "I. will. NOT. take. off. face." He sounded murderous.

Dan swallowed. His eyes traced Rorschach's exposed mouth. His lips were almost white with rage.

"I will not do that, Daniel. Understand?"

"Not even for me?" Dan whispered. He wasn't sure where that had come from.

Rorschach looked at him so hard, he could almost see it though the rapidly changing mask.

"What?"

"Not even for me? The person who loves you the most?"

Rorschach paused. "Love?"

Daniel took a breath to steady himself. "Yes. We've gone through more than most people go through in ten lifetimes together. I'd be concerned if I didn't have some love for you."

Dan sat down in the chair next to Rorschach. He no longer had any control of his body. "I want to keep you safe. Always."

He grabbed the back of Rorschach's head, pushing their lips together. The stubble on Rorschach's face rubbed against his cheek, it excited Dan even further. He smelled strongly, it had been three days since his last shower. Something about it was wonderful. The kiss only lasted a few seconds, but it was enough. Dan was even harder than he had been that day in his bathroom, he needed Rorschach.

"And I want you to keep me safe." He panted, smiling.

And he was on the floor, nose broken.

"Daniel, why? Why you?! HOMOSEXUAL, DANIEL?! Sick, sick, sick, sick. Not you. No, Daniel. You're soft, not corrupt. No. NO!" Rorschach ran out of the house, kicking down the front door as he left.

-------

Daniel sat on his toilet as he tended his nose. There was a small tap on the door frame.

Piotr stood there, wide eyed. "Birdman?"

Daniel chuckled, despite his current pain. "Yes. You can call me Daniel. Your name is Piotr, correct?"

He nodded, curly dirty blond hair bouncing. "Friends call me Pete."

"It's nice to meet you, Pete. How're you feeling?"

"Better."

"That's good."

They looked at each other a few moments. "My parents and sisters, they're dead. Right?"

Daniel looked at him, surprised. "Yes. I'm so sorry."

Pete shook his head. "No. It's not your fault. My Papa, he was in deep. Mama told him, she told him this would happen." He said solemnly.

"The shop was in trouble, wasn't it?"

"Yes. Papa tried to pay them back, but when he couldn't, they took me. Right after school, I was walking home with my sisters."

Daniel stood up, and hugged the small boy, petting his hair and humming softly.

"Where am I going to go, Daniel?" Pete whispered.

"Here. Right here. I'll take care of you, Pete. Take a shower, I'll make you some dinner. You must be hungry."

-------

Author's Note: Alright, short chapter, but a lot goes on. I'll update in two weeks, maybe a little sooner, if inspiration strikes.

**Please review. It lets me know I'm not writing this for nothing. Also, if anyone is interested in being my beta, please PM me. Thank you.**


End file.
